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How a professional snooker season works: ranking events, qualifiers and tour cards
What makes up a season, what qualifiers and “held-over” matches are, and how players earn and lose a place on the professional tour.
A general outline of the WST professional tour to help read the rounds and formats on our event pages. Exact places, cutoffs and formats are set each season by WST and WPBSA and may change.
Three kinds of event in a season
The WST season runs roughly from summer to the following spring, ending with the World Championship at the Crucible. Its events fall into three groups: ranking events that count towards the world rankings, invitational or qualification-based events that do not, and exhibitions and other events.
The World Championship, the UK Championship and the Masters form the Triple Crown, and the Masters is an invitational event that carries no ranking money. A Masters win brings attention but no direct move up the world rankings, which count ranking-event prize money only. Our guide to ranking money explains the system.
Qualifiers and held-over matches
Many ranking events have a final stage of 64 or 32 players, while the tour has well over a hundred professionals, so qualifying rounds come first. They are usually played weeks earlier at a separate venue, and winners earn places in the final stage.
The “Held Over” rounds you will see on our event pages are qualifying matches moved to the main venue, typically involving top seeds or players connected with the host nation. They are still part of qualifying; only the venue and dates change.
Formats lengthen as an event goes on
Early rounds are often best-of-7, with matches getting longer in later rounds. Finals are commonly best-of-19 or longer, and the World Championship final is best-of-35, played over four sessions across two days.
Format changes what statistics mean. In a short match one or two errors decide it, and averages rest on few visits. Before comparing two matches' numbers, check whether their formats match.
| Stage | Typical format | When reading statistics |
|---|---|---|
| Qualifying / early rounds | Best of 7 or 9 | Small samples; single-match numbers swing |
| Middle rounds | Best of 9 or 11 | Consistency starts to show |
| Final | Best of 17, 19 or longer | Often split into sessions, sometimes across days |
How players gain and lose a tour card
Tour places are generally granted as two-year tour cards. At the end of a season, players inside the top 64 of the two-year rolling rankings keep their place; those outside it whose card has expired drop off the tour.
Routes on to the tour include Q School, the WPBSA Q Tour rankings, continental and world amateur championships and the one-year ranking list. The allocation can change from season to season, so treat official announcements as definitive.
Why this site covers WST events only
The WPBSA calendar also lists seniors, Q Tour, women's, disability snooker and English billiards events. Different bodies run them, and their draws and scores are not published through the WST match centre.
We only create event pages where draws and results can be collected reliably, so you will not find pages with a name and no results. For events outside the professional tour, consult the organising body's own site.